‘We are ready': TransCanada expects to file for Energy East pipeline permit by August

TORONTO • TransCanada Corp. expects to file an application for its massive Energy East project as early as next month.

“We are ready,” Bob Eadie, Energy East pipeline project director at TransCanada, said Tuesday in an interview in Toronto where the company and an industry group were showing off a new pipeline training program.

“We have been working diligently on the permit application and we will be ready to submit in August. It is very possible we may choose to submit it in September based on timing of the [National Energy] board and our internal timing, but we are definitely on track to submit the application in the third quarter.”

Touted as one of North America’s largest energy projects at $12-billion, the proposed conduit will find a new outlet for Alberta’s landlocked crude as Canadian pipelines heading south to the U.S. and to the Canadian West Coast are facing strong opposition. The 1.1 million barrel-per-day project will feed eastern refineries along the way and connect Alberta to international markets via a marine terminal in Saint John, N.B.

Calgary-based TransCanada expects the estimated $12-billion figure to rise as it accommodates various stakeholders dotted across the length of the country.

“Estimates done at this early stage, as we are going through the permitting process, are subject to change based on regulatory requirement, based on consultations… and if we decide to make changes in response to community requests, which we are doing,” Mr. Eadie said.

Stung by opposition to its Keystone XL project, TransCanada is engaged in a hectic charm offensive to get municipalities and aboriginal groups on its side amid rising opposition from environmental groups. The company has held numerous town hall meetings and consultations with stakeholders as it gears up to file the application with the National Energy Board.

“We have learned a lot about local concerns, and we have taken steps already to revise pipeline routing with respect to those concerns. We are revisiting many of the locations,” Mr. Eadie said.

Environmental groups say more than a dozen resolutions have been filed in Quebec by communities, and the pipeline will likely face an avalanche of legal challenges.

“We are in early days with the Energy East pipeline, but we are already seeing opposition grow,” said Andrea Harden-Donahue, energy and climate justice campaigner at Council of Canadians. “The legal battles are going to play out in the next six months to a year. We are going to see some of that come forward, and even more as the NEB process comes to a conclusion.”

Work on construction-related infrastructure for the project is expected to start in first quarter 2016, assuming it secures National Energy Board approval in the fourth quarter of 2015, with a scheduled in-service date in the fourth quarter of 2018.

The project is expected to create 10,000 direct jobs during the construction phase and boost eastern refineries in Ontario and Quebec that currently source crude oil from international markets that are typically priced in the more expensive Brent crude oil.